How to recognize the traps of the devil

Satan "covers his servants with gifts"
Satan gives provocative and poisonous gifts to those who follow him. It happens that some give the ability to predict the future or to guess the past in detail, to others instead of receiving messages and writing whole pages of text. Some become seers, they read thoughts, hearts and lives of living or dead people. In this way the devil throws mud on the prophets of Christ, on the true revelators and others who receive the messages of Jesus, Mary and the saints because, imitating the divine works, the works of the Holy Spirit, the Evil one tries to confuse people for not make it clear who is the true and who the false prophet.
Through his lying servants, he sometimes praises the real ones, provoking on them the contempt of the people who reject them as "recognized". from the fake ones. We have the famous event reported in the Acts of the Apostles during Paul's stay in the city of Thyatira. A young slave constantly followed him. He had spirit powers and brought a lot of money to the masters as he guesses. Going after him, the possessed woman screamed: "These men are servants of the Most High God and announce the way of salvation to you!" Definitely, she (evil spirit) did not do it to incite souls to convert, but to induce people to reject Paul and with him the teaching of Christ, knowing that she herself possessed by the Devil, "affirmed" the Apostle's mandate . Embittered, Paul prayed thus freeing her from the unclean spirit (cf. Acts 16, 16-18).
Let us remember the examples in Scripture that draw first the miraculous action of God and then the diabolical one. We know the actions of Moses before Pharaoh. These are the famous plagues of Egypt. We also know that Egyptian magicians performed prodigious works. Therefore in itself the act of the miracle is not enough to understand its cause. The evil spirit is very skilful in dressing up so as not to be discovered: "... Satan masks himself as an angel of light" (2 Cor 11, 14). It has the power to arouse all external human senses such as sight, touch, hearing, and internal ones: memory, fantasy, imagination. No walls, no armored doors and no caretakers manage to hinder Satan's influence on someone's memory or imagination. Nor can the most iron fence of the severe Carmelo be unable to prevent him from jumping the walls, and, through certain images, to cast doubt on the soul of a nun, spurring her to abandon her vows and the community. This is why it is said that "the pious demon" is the most dangerous. There are no places, however sacred, where he does not enter. He is especially expert in being found in sacred places in religious clothes where many believers gather. These seductions are very alarming. It is necessary to evaluate the Devil well We meet the practices of magic in the human history of all peoples. Today they are widespread thanks to the mass media that advertise them. Numerous people fall into the traps of the Demon. Just as many of the faithful will shake hands by underestimating any type of discourse on Satanism.
Opening the Bible we will find that there is much talk against magic and sorcerers, both in the Old and New Testaments. We quote some sentences: “… you will not learn to commit the abominations of the nations that live there. Let not those who sacrifice them by making them pass through the fire, their son or daughter, nor those who exercise divination or sorcery or best wishes or magic; neither who makes spells, nor who consults spirits or fortune-tellers, nor who interrogates the dead (spiritism), because whoever does these things is in abomination to the Lord "(Dt 18, 9-12); “Do not turn to necromancers or fortune tellers ... not to contaminate yourself through them. I am the Lord your God "(Lv 19:31); “If man or woman, among you, will practice necromancy or divination, they will have to be put to death; they will be stoned and their blood will fall on them "(Lv 20, 27); "You will not let the one who practices magic live" (Ex 22:17). In the New Testament our Lord Jesus Christ warned us to be aware of the enormous diabolical dominion, not to provoke it but to fight it. And in addition, it gave us the power to drive it away, teaching us how to fight against its permanent pitfalls. He himself wanted to be tempted by the Devil to make us understand his malice, insolence and perseverance. Calling our attention, he made us understand that we cannot serve two masters: “Your enemy, the devil, like a roaring lion, goes around looking for someone to devour. Resist him firm in faith ”(1 Pt 5, 8-9).
Usually the devil uses some people by binding them tightly to himself. Later they glorify him. It gives them the authority to manage always destructive haughty forces, making them slaves to his service. These individuals, by means of evil spirits, can negatively and destructively influence those who live far from God. They are the poor, unhappy souls who do not know the meaning of life, the meaning of suffering, fatigue, pain and death. They desire the happiness that the world offers: well-being, wealth, power, popularity, pleasures ... And Satan assails: “I will give you all this power and the glory of these realms, because it has been put into my hands and I give it to whoever I want. If you bow down to me, everything will be yours "(Lk 4: 6-7).
And what happens? People of all categories, young and old, workers and intellectuals, men and women, politicians, actors, sportsmen, various investigators spurred on by curiosity and all those oppressed by their personal, family, psychic or physical problems, often fall into the traps presented by magic and occult practices. And here magicians, astrologers, fortune tellers, seers, healers, pranotherapists, psychics, radio estheticians, those who practice hypnosis and other psychics - the legion of "special" types, await them with open arms, skilled and ready. There are several reasons that lead us to them: accidentally we are in the midst of others who do it, browsing to find out what happens or out of desperation in the hope of finding a way out of a distressing situation.
Many here exploit the inventions, superstition, curiosity and deception that bring a huge gain.
This is not a naive and benign topic. Magic is not just a business out of reality. Indeed, it is a very dangerous area where magicians of all kinds resort to diabolical forces to influence the course of events, other people and their lives, and to have some permanent advantage for themselves. The result of these practices is always the same: to turn the soul away from God, to lead it into sin and finally, to prepare for its internal death.
The devil should not be underestimated. He is the astute deceiver who tends to lead us into error and extremity. If he cannot convince us that he doesn't exist or drag us into one of his traps, he tries to persuade us that he is everywhere and that everything belongs to him. Use man's weak faith and frailties and cause him fears. It seeks to break his trust in the Lord's omnipotence, love and mercy. Some come to talk about evil continually by seeing it everywhere. That too is a trap of the Evil one since a gaze of God is stronger than any evil and a drop of his Blood is enough to save the world.